Pause-serve mechanisms are designed to enable a user to temporarily remove a carafe from underneath a brew basket of a coffee maker during a brewing cycle without having freshly brewed coffee drip or flow out of the brew basket outlet. Such mechanisms typically include a spring-biased valve for closing the outlet orifice of the brew basket when the carafe is removed from the coffee maker. The spring bias acting on the valve is overcome when the carafe is inserted into its brew-receiving position.
Ideally, a pause-serve mechanism is reliable, inexpensive and durable, and is constructed to create minimal interference with the operation or use of the coffee maker. Although many different pause-serve mechanisms have been developed, there is still a continuing need to reduce the cost and increase the durability of pause-serve mechanisms, and a need to improve their operating characteristics.